Thoracic epidural anesthesia for pain relief and postoperation recovery with modified radical mastectomy

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether thoracic epidural anesthesia (TEA) provides better postoperative pain relief and recovery than general anesthesia (GA) for modified radical mastectomy (MRM) surgery. Sixty-four patients rated as American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) 1 to 3 who underwent MRM surgery were included in the study. In TEA group patients, 2% lidocaine (15-20 ml) was administered via the epidural route as primary anesthesia, in conjunction with midazolam (5-10 mg) and fentanyl (<250 microg) for amnesia. The GA patients were maintained with isoflurane and 50% nitrous oxide in oxygen. After operation the patients were given pethidine (1 mg/kg IM) as required for pain relief. The time to first pethidine requirement, total pethidine consumption, worst pain score, bed rest time, satisfaction score, and anesthesia-related side effects were recorded for 2 days after surgery. The results show that TEA provided a more prolonged analgesic effect than GA after operation. A longer time to first pethidine requirement (19.2 +/- 1.5 vs. 7.6 +/- 2.5 hours) (p < 0. 001) and decreased pethidine consumption (17.2 +/- 7.0 vs. 76.3 +/- 17.4 mg) (p < 0.001) were observed in the TEA group than in the GA group, respectively. A worse visual analog scale (VAS) pain score was observed in the GA group (5.7 +/- 0.6) than in TEA patients (4.3 +/- 0.4) (p < 0.01). The average bed rest time was significantly shorter in the TEA group (16.9 +/- 0.9 hours) (p < 0.01) than in the GA group (27.1 +/- 4.1 hours). Overall satisfaction scores were significantly higher in the TEA group (4.4 +/- 0.1) (p < 0.01) than in the GA group (3.5 +/- 0.2). Side effects were observed at a higher frequency in the GA group (16/32) (p < 0.0001) than in the TEA group (3/32). The frequency of pethidine injection for pain relief was significantly lower in the TEA group (8/32) (p < 0.0001) than in the GA group (24/32). The total hospital cost (NT 64,392 +/- 3,523 vs. NT 53,806 +/- 2,817) (p = 0.0342) and anesthesia cost (NT 7,968 +/- 246 vs. NT 5,268 +/- 262) (p < 0.0001) are also significantly lower in the TEA group than the GA group. In conclusion, TEA provided better postoperative pain relief and recovery and lower cost than GA for MRM surgery.